100 year old houses

 Where we live

When we first arrived here, we shared an old farmhouse which was over 100 years old (we had to wait 2 weeks for our place to become available).  The other missionary couple were wonderful and bent over backward to make it work for all of us (short showers, not lingering in the shared bathroom, etc.). The part we loved most about this place was all the wild life.  

Pheasant 

It was far from the highway, farm dogs, etc. The house is also two stories and very spacious. It took me back in time.  The floors squeaked just like I remembered at my grandparents  as a young girl, the kitchen knobs looked familiar, and it even smelled like my grandparents house.  Was it the lath and plaster I was smelling?  This was also the house my 10th cousin's husband built for her.  The yard was fenced and there was an old clothes line in the yard.  Lilac bushes has been planted along the perimeter and I swore for just a second I could hear the sound of children laughing as they played, as the breeze carried with it the fresh scent of newly laundered linens and lilacs.

Fireplaces.  There were two fireplaces in this home and I imagine that a hundred years ago  was their primary heat source when winter came and the winds  began to gust and blow against the house.

Main fireplace in the living room.  I kinda wanted to build a fire during that first snowstorm, but was told that the manager on this part of the ranch had begged us not to.  He feared it might catch the place on fire. So I warmed up my rice-bag and pretended I was sitting before a blazing fire. :

The next house we moved into, several weeks later, is 12 miles east of Harlowton on the main part of the ranch.  In addition to the Bunk House where we are living, there are two employees and their families who live here, plus two other houses where three brothers with permits from Mexico live for 6 months of the year.  They are friendly, but speak little English.  Their days are also very long. 

The bunkhouse is where hunters come and stay in the fall and hunt for antelope, white tail deer, etc. 

The Work

The projects continue to progress along.  The people in all three of the main houses have been dealing with leaks.  Elder Himle has resolved all of those issues, installed two water softeners, plumbed a new bathroom (in a basement without plumbing), and is now working on another farm house that is also around 120 years old.  Fixing things in this house have been challenging.  I have worked alongside him running for tools, carrying away the old, etc. He has witnessed some things he has never seen before, but we petition the Lord for blessings and help every day and he comes through for us.

Framing, electrical, sheet rocking, mudding, painting, tiling, grouting (the red is water proofing, but I think the people thought we were doing it in bright red and sweetly told us it looked nice!). 

The shower, workers and happy family!

This is our current project.  Ever wonder what Lathe and Plaster means?  This is it!

Here is a before and after shot.  Picture yourself sitting on this toilet.  Now, you come to the end of this moment and you need toilet paper.  You are reaching back, trying to reach... but your arm doesn't go that direction.  What to do!?  Call for your companion?  Stretch further?  It is really the predicament or should I say crappy situation.  Elder Himle invested in a free standing TP holder and donated it to the cause.  

This is the shiplap he installed to cover and dress up an unattractive wall.  Elder Himle wanted to build a wall to hide the pipe, but they want to keep the 36 inch shower (many of the hunters are big), and we didn't have the real estate.  The bottom of the shower had not been leveled, so water always stood in the bottom. The water is very hard so it had a thick layers of hard water deposit.  Wes got his level out and we figured out how to level it, then we put some elbow grease to it (along with some CLR cleaner) and cleaned up  nicel